


The Faerie King

by KrystalMoon



Category: Cryptids - Fandom, Faerie Folklore, Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Owl Monster, POV First Person, cryptid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:48:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29532228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrystalMoon/pseuds/KrystalMoon
Summary: My name is Sarah Williams.Something interesting about me I'd like to share; I once wished my baby half-brother away to the goblins when I was sixteen. The King of the Goblins fell in love with me, I guess. I was really too young to know how to respond to him.I'm twenty-five, and part of me always regretted not actually realizing what it was I could have had. I took far more for granted than I realized...It's not every day that a Faerie King falls in love with some silly mortal girl like me. But I have to wonder...Is this the kind of romantic attention that I really want?
Relationships: Jareth/Sarah Williams, Oberon/Titania
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [It’s Only Forever](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16094033) by [KrystalMoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrystalMoon/pseuds/KrystalMoon). 



> This is a first person complete re-hash of my previous Labyrinth FanFic. I was disinterested with the direction my previous fic was going and wanted to take it to a different direction. It literally had a chapter left before I refused to work on it further. I am focused on producing this one a lot more effectively. Those familiar with my previous work, this will not follow the same plot I had taken it to. So I hope this is enjoyable for all as this will go a completely new direction while sticking to my intended concepts. Please enjoy~

* * *

**PROLOGUE**

* * *

  
I ascended the steps with uneasy panicked anxiety creating a pitfall within my own stomach. Words echoing in my head that I needed to have memorized. I could never remember those last words and the odds seemed too overwhelmingly stacked against me rescuing Toby. So lost in thought, it took me far too long to realize that the castle seemed curiously devoid of goblins. Even the throne room I had left Ludo, Sir Didymus, Ambrosius, and Hoggle in only seemed to have chickens roaming around. I stopped for a moment as I considered the act of leaving them behind. For what purpose was it? They were safe at the very least, but I wondered if the presence of the goblins really changed that. They seemed rather incompetent.

I frowned.

They seemed like they were always getting in each other’s way. That did not seem like a trained army. I shook my head and continued forth through the archway and into the room. The room above the throne room had doors in the same places, which seemed oddly uniform for a place that seemed to always reach for reality breaking. This room, too, showed signs of recent goblin activity, but no goblins. There was a slight taste in the air of tension which gave me my only warning to the Goblin King’s presence behind me.

Intending on being nonchalant, I turned smoothly on my heel and looked over my shoulder. Instead of the feathery haired man, I saw that the door had disappeared. It startled me enough that I stared at it for longer than what I should have.

I shook my head to ward off the dizzying effect that his magic and the labyrinth has had on me since I arrived. I couldn’t let it get to me now. Not after getting this far. Come on, Sarah. Pull yourself together. I turned and nearly tripped. I was not at all in the same place.

The room had completely changed, so much so that I was convinced I was in another realm entirely. The whole of reality on this plane had seemingly been ripped to shreds, walls and bits of floor torn apart, some rotating silently away into the void.

I turned once more, feeling eyes on me, and stared at the figure standing in what had been the doorway from before, now an empty archway to nothing. The Goblin King pushed off the wall and approached me, but it was clear he was tired.

So there was a limit to his power. Good to know. Could magic users get a second wind though? I was not keen to find out. I needed to strike now.

“Give me the child,” I said calmly, lifting up my chin.

“Sarah, beware..” he responded, a catch of something I couldn’t translate in his tone. “I have been generous up until now, but I can be cruel.”

“Generous?” Don’t let yourself get angry now. Don’t lose whatever edge you just got. I closed my eyes a second to force myself to calm. I could hear him pacing around me. “What have you done that’s generous?”

“Everything!” His tone snapped echoing off the broken walls loudly, and he stepped closer to me punctuating his exclamation. His temper sparked with tension. I anticipated his impatience, but not this much of a slip in his control over himself. I flinched inevitably, but he continued without losing pace. I prayed he hadn’t noticed me twitch. He breathed in through his nose and seemed to force himself to return to calm. “Everything that you have wanted I have done. You asked that the child be taken; I took him. You begged for a chance to win him back; I gave it to you. You didn’t find my labyrinth fair; I aided you through it- yes I did.” I caught myself shaking my head before I could stop myself. His blue eyes flashed angrily. “Do you really think that anything in  _ my  _ labyrinth happens without  _ my _ notice? I was constantly pointing you in every right direction no matter how irritating you got.”

“Oh, right,” I laughed. “And giving me an enchanted peach meant to waste my time and remove my memories of what I was doing was really supposed to help me.”

I froze. The Goblin King’s expression was not his usual snarky smirk, It almost looked remorseful. It reminded me instantly of the expression that had been on his face while he was dancing with me in my dream. For a brief moment, I wondered if he had actually been there. If that were possible. Shamefully, I had to admit to myself that part of me actually wanted that.

“I could have left you there,” he said quietly. Then his eyes snapped to mine as I inwardly began backpedaling against that irritatingly loud part of me that seemed to be attracted to this man. “I admit, I found it rather shocking… You sought me out without any memory of who I was…”

He remembered. He  _ was _ there. I groaned inside myself, wanting to give nothing away.

I remembered it too clearly and had wanted to repress the whole thing. Especially when we almost kissed. His heartbroken expression as the clock began to toll the next hour which woke me seemed to take on a different tone than before. Originally I had thought it was because he had wanted to keep me there and I somehow triumphed over him through my sheer willpower. Suddenly the new meaning of the moment made me realize that I only won because  _ he _ let me.  _ He _ woke me up.  _ He  _ sent Sir Didymus, Hoggle, and Ludo to save me from the trash heap once I broke out of what would have been my probably eternal prison.

What am I saying right now? He’s nothing more than a man. Or perhaps a goblin. You are good at manipulating the situation and my feelings, sir, but I will not play stupid. Now was a good time to remember my lines.

“Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered,” I delivered precisely and coldly, stepping towards him. “I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city.” He stepped away. Why? Was he actually frightened of me? His face was expressionless, but his eyes glittered with something. “For my will is as strong as yours, and my-.”

“Stop!” he snapped raising a hand. I had lost myself in my lines trying so hard to remember them correctly that I hadn’t realized that I had forced him to back up down some stairs onto the last bit of floor left. “Look at what I’m offering you.” He produced a crystal orb at the tips of his fingers and held it out to me. “Your dreams.”

My… I looked at the crystal. Inside the orb was a Toby-less room. I had all the attention from my father.  _ Was that really what I wanted? _ I shook my head. It was like those stories where someone wished for something they thought they wanted and things turned out unfortunate for them in the end. No. I wanted things to be back to normal.

“And my kingdom as great,” I continued stepping closer again. He stepped away once more, closer to the edge.

“I ask for so little. Just let me rule you and you can have whatever you want.”

What in the actual hell was he asking me for? What was that final line? I could never remember it.

“Just fear me,” he continued quietly. I looked up from whatever I had looked off to without notice and frowned at him. “Love me; Do as I say and I will be your slave.”

I glared suspiciously at the Goblin King. He seemed pained, his breathing uneven and his eyes were pleading, almost desperate.

“You have no power over me…” I said darkly. It came naturally to me, and I didn’t actually remember the line. But as everything went dark and the clock began to strike the final hour, relief washed over me.

I thought it was over.

Oh, how foolish I was.


	2. Just Say My Name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm definitely liking this direction a lot more.

* * *

**JUST SAY MY NAME**

* * *

_“You have no power over me."_

Those words I had spoken years ago haunted me occasionally. Guilt? Perhaps. Today they reverberated inside my skull for a different reason.

I had most recently watched “Pan’s Labyrinth,” or “El Laberinto del Fauno” as it’s known in its native language. It was an enchanting tale about a girl who had to pass three trials before she could prove she was the reincarnation of a lost princess while she dealt with the harsh reality of nazis. I couldn’t help but draw similarities between the movie and my own experience inside an equally magical labyrinth. Though her and her mother’s plight I couldn’t even begin to fathom. I became obsessed.

I was watching it for the fifteenth time with books about fairies in my lap. I had the plot memorized and the subtitles basically memorized as well, so I mostly ignored the movie while I thumbed through the catalogue of fae creatures.

“I had unwittingly walked myself into a faerie realm without ever realizing it…” A sudden cold chill ran down my spine and I shuddered. Terror that should have been in place those many years ago when facing a powerful fae now hit me as I relived every close call. Every offense. The enchanted peach.

Now it was clear.

I snapped the book shut and looked around my room. I knew I still had his favor, as there was still a goblin presence in the house. The overly large barn owl was back on his favorite perch on the tree branch closest to my window.

He was a strange barn owl. I could lift the window and talk to him from a very close distance and he did not seem in the least bit startled or disturbed by me. I’d joke sometimes of how healthy he looked, that he better not be snacking on Goblins. This joke did not seem to be funny to the owl and he’d often click his beak at me and turn his head away. It never really hit me until just then that this could have been the Goblin King, because I had previously been convinced that the Goblin King was a man. Men could not transform, but a fae king definitely could.

Today, I lifted the window and stared at the bird in a different light. If the Goblin King really was a fae, it made sense to me that the owl could be him. Or perhaps a vessel he used to keep an eye on me. Before I could talk to him though, my stepmother chose then to burst into my room.

“Seriously?” she screeched. “Instead of spending time looking for a job, you are busy watching this stupid movie and talking to that stupid bird again? Do you know what the neighbors think?!”

“I already have a part-time job…”

“You should have a full-time job Sarah, you spend far too much time sitting around here.”

“It’s almost night-time. And besides that who cares what the neighbors think,” I grumbled.

“Excuse me?!” Her voice reached another octave. “I care, Sarah.”

“You don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

“Watch your mouth!” Spit flew from her mouth as she lost control of her temper. “I refuse to have this argument with you any longer! You are twenty-fucking-five and all you do is mope around our house eating our food and getting fat every day!”

“You don’t have a job, you know,” I snapped back at her. Her dig at my weight hit me hard and got under my skin. She was already starting to talk over me, but I raised my voice louder to be heard. “The job market isn’t as friendly as it used to be, Karen, and it’s much harder to find an apartment when you refuse to let my dad cosign. My credit is too new.”

“Excuses!” She roared. “I’m sick of them!”

“Excuses?! No, that’s reality! You’re only mad that I’m still at home and you can’t have your precious little dream family of three.”

“Well, maybe if you should have been smart and gone to college.” Her voice dropped from her high octave and she shut the door in my face. Toby was crying and the house echoed with intense tension.

I was sick of it. Did she really think I wanted to stay here?

I could hear Karen downstairs recounting the argument with me with my father who didn’t have the balls to disagree with her. I couldn’t hear much but mostly it would only lead to “I’ll go talk to her.” He never stood up for me. I could hear her talking about my weight and how I had no hope of ever finding a man now and I knew she was saying it loud enough on purpose.

Honestly, that college line really made me angry, too. She had already made it clear before that she wasn’t going to spend a dime on my college education and spent no amount of time throwing it at my face that I should have gone to college as if she wasn’t the reason I didn’t go.

I turned to shut my window but noticed the barn owl still there.

“I was young and stupid,” I said to him, pleading with the owl. “I was so afraid to accept your offer of my dreams because I never wanted to be stuck here by myself…”

The barn owl clicked his beak at me softly and blinked.

“You should have taken me instead of Toby. Or allowed me to trade.”

_Click-click-click._

“Then again…” I mused more to myself, starting to wonder if the bird was really just a bird. “I wouldn’t have wanted to become a goblin…” I sighed. “Though now, I admit I probably would prefer being a goblin over this. I wish you’d talk to me, Jareth.”

The owl stared at me for a moment, perhaps disdainfully, before turning around and flying off. I watched him disappear into the darkness and thought about how silly it must have been that I speak to an owl that probably wasn’t even the Goblin King at all. I was about to shut the window when the owl streaked into the room and landed on top of my bedpost. Turning to face me, balancing upon the frame, he stared at me carefully. He directed his attention to the window and it snapped shut on its own, away from my hands. That startled me and I had flinched away from it, taking my eyes off the owl.

“You want me to talk to you, Sarah?” That hauntingly familiar voice wrenched my heart from its place in my chest to my stomach. I swallowed and anxiously looked towards the door. “Don’t worry about them. They have all fallen asleep.”

I turned to face the Goblin King, who now stood a little in front of where the owl had landed. He was wearing armor with a high collar, similar to the same outfit he had worn when he first appeared to me except this time he wore no blue cape with it. He watched me with his oddly mismatched eyes. One blue, almost human looking one, and one with an enlarged pupil that seemed very owl-like. His face seemed more obviously inhuman now than I remembered. I hadn’t noticed pointed ears before but now I could see them protruding out of his feathered, poofy off-white hair. As he spoke, I noticed his teeth were still the same. Fanged, almost werewolf-like.

“What are you expecting from me? What is it you want me to say?” He seemed agitated. I was struck by fear as I had honestly never seen him offended rage before except for that very brief moment in the labyrinth when I had challenged him. “Now that you know I’m a fae, that is when you want to apologize to me? Now that you finally understand the weight of your words and wishes, that is when you want to make trades, and amends? Sarah, surely you know there are consequences to your actions. No simple apology will fix this.”

I dropped my gaze to the floor under my feet, curling my toes in uncomfortably. I had crossed my arms at some point and adjusted my posture so I didn’t seem quite so insecure at the moment. I looked back up at the Goblin King, but he seemed preoccupied with his leathery glove as he adjusted it.

“Well?” he asked his glove.

“What about a complex apology?” I didn’t even know what I meant by it. His responding expression was one of confusion. Whatever it was that he had been expecting me to say, apparently that wasn’t it. “I was sixteen. A child. My mother disappeared. My father remarried and started a new family and I always felt like I was just an unhappy forced addition to the home. I was always expected to babysit and no matter what I said or did Karen was always right. In my resentment and childishness, I wished my half-brother away to be turned into a goblin.” I took in a breath and looked down at my feet in shame. “It was childish, because that wouldn’t have solved my problems at all, and I knew it. I knew I went too far so I had to put it right. I was so focused on fixing what I did wrong that I completely ignored other possibilities. There were no other solutions to me. Not then.” There was silence between us for a moment. “I thought if I had fixed things that I would have a happy ending. Instead nothing changed. It’s as if it never happened at all.”

“You want to change things now that you realize the outcome is not to your liking,” the Goblin King said coldly. I looked up at the fae’s hardened expression, and realized if I didn’t say the right thing correctly, I may lose any opportunity I had at the beginning of the conversation.

Before I could respond, I realized that he was right. If things had turned out alright in the end, would I still be seeking him out? I was about to give up when the thought hit me. I looked up at the Goblin King.

“Jareth,” I said his name softly. His stoney face did not react at all, only his eyes watched me carefully. “The outcome was bound to not be to my liking.” I stepped closer to him. “Had I been a little older and mature, I would have immediately thought to trade myself for Toby instead of selfishly believing I to be a heroine of some sort.”

Something in Jareth’s expression changed for a moment before sliding back into expressionlessness. I couldn’t tell what it was. Pain?

It looked so similar to when the Goblin King had trapped me in what would have been my dream prison of what would have been an endless masquerade ball.

* * *

_I remembered nothing. I don’t know how I got here or why I had even come. There was so much noise. So much movement. I looked down at myself. I don’t even remember who I was or why I was dressed in such a beautiful pink princess-in-a-fairy-tale styled dress. My hair felt extremely heavy. I touched it lightly and found it was styled in a manner that made it extremely poofy and bedazzled with crystals of some kind. Definitely princessy._

_I was getting looks from the other partiers. Their masks were grotesque and I felt out of place without one. I stepped forward, not really sure what my purpose was, but I was certain I’d find it and remember eventually once I saw it._

_Someone was staring at me in a black mask and a velvet looking glittery blue dress suit. Leering at me, more like. But something was strangely familiar about him, I couldn’t help but stare. Why did he seem so familiar? He lowered his mask and I saw a smirk on his face. Almost triumphant and confident. I felt my heart yearn for something I didn’t quite understand. His attention made my cheeks burn. Slowly, his smirk disappeared into something that looked like confusion. Then he raised his chin and as a random passerby danced into my view, blocking my sight of the familiar man, disappeared without a trace._

_My chest immediately ached with a pain I had never felt before. Panicked, I began to search for him. Pushing past guests and their dancing and laughing, I wanted to be distracted by nothing but finding him again. He was the reason I was here and I had to find him. I didn’t know his name, nor did I remember anything about him, so I couldn’t ask anyone who I was searching for but surely I’d run into him again. I felt my eyes sting as time passed, desperation starting to kick in._

_Why couldn’t I find him?_

_I was definitely getting stared at now. I didn’t care. Nothing mattered to me except finding that man in the glittery blue suit and poofy near-white blond hair. Was he purposefully avoiding me? Perhaps he left? No, that couldn’t be._

_Movement behind me made me turn around to a large fan moving out of the way, and there he was._

_He seemed amused by something, but also there was an expression I didn’t entirely recognize that made my breath catch in my chest as my heart did a somersault or two. He stepped towards me gently, grasping my left hand in his right, his other pressing lightly into the small of my back as I placed a hand up on his shoulder. His familiarly mismatched eyes staring into mine with an intensity I had never seen in them before._

_He led us to the center of the floor, dancing all the while and barely breaking eye contact with me. Couples surrounding us made plenty of respectable room as we danced around gently to a ballad of some kind._

_“Why are you looking at me like that, precious?” he asked softly._

_“I was afraid I wouldn’t find you. I thought you disappeared,” I replied, unable to hide my anxiousness. That response made him frown a little._

_At first he didn’t respond and then finally he flashed his teeth in an unleveled half-grin that made my heart skip a beat or two. He pressed his hand against the back of my waist a little, pulling me closer to him._

_“You won't ever have to worry about me disappearing on you, precious,” he cooed lovingly. “I’ll always be there for you. Just say my name and I’ll be there.”_

_“Jareth…” The name came readily to my mind without any recollection of it. It shocked him as much as it did myself. Our dance came to a sudden halt as he stared at me, frozen, his mouth open as if he wanted to respond but couldn’t. He gave up and closed it, pressing me tightly against him, I hadn’t realized before just how tall he was compared to me. I had to look up at him to see his eyes_

_He leaned down, pressing his forehead against mine, and at first I thought he might kiss me, but then he closed his eyes and a strange expression brushed across his face that distorted it very slightly and disappeared too quickly for me to figure out what it was. His brow remained furrowed though and he loosened his grip on me._

_The clock began to strike before I could figure out what it meant._

_What was I doing? I was searching for something else and I was running out of time! I turned around and ran for the wall. I had to escape. I had to get out of here._

* * *

“But did you mean that…?” I asked myself. I’d never remembered it so clearly as I did now, and I wondered if it was because the moment was similar enough that it jogged my memory of what I had previously thought was simply a dream. I looked up at the Goblin King and stepped closer to him. “You once told me that you’d always be there for me. Did you mean that?”

“What is it you want from me, Sarah?” His voice was softly quiet, hardly above a whisper.

“Take me with you.”


	3. Don’t Leave

* * *

**Don’t Leave**

* * *

What did I honestly expect?

The following days after first coming back to the Goblin Kingdom were rather odd. The last time the goblins saw me, I nearly destroyed their city with help from Ludo’s boulders. Yet rather than being met with disgust, I was immediately accepted from the get go. As a matter of fact, they all seemed excited. Several brought me presents and they seemed absolutely thrilled whenever I needed anything.

I woke up like I did the past few days, unsure of my surroundings and the change of atmosphere from home was equally welcoming as much as it made me anxious. My host had brought me to my room on the first night and I hadn’t seen him since. I wondered rather often if he was upset with me and frequently attempted to go to the throne room on multiple occasions, only going as far as the stairs before I got cold feet and went back to my room. Today, I had decided I wanted to find out if he was upset with me or not.

I found the Goblin King lounging on his throne casually as I descended the stairway.

“Yes, Sarah?”

I hadn't even entered the messy, noisy room. He hadn’t even looked up from his crystal orb he was busy playing with and I was surprised he even noticed me to start with. A lot of the goblins in the room were chasing chickens around gleefully, while others played card games and drank something from tankards. It didn’t smell alcoholic, from what I could tell, but the musty smell of chickens and the earthy smell of goblins overrode any smells that might have been there otherwise.

The feathery haired Fae looked over to me when I didn’t immediately respond, his expression flat and unreadable. He didn’t seem approachable at the moment, but I was stuck between the social obligation to speak now that I had his attention, and the want to turn back around and exit back to my room.

This would have been the fourth day in a row I had attempted to speak to Jareth and instead chose to go back to my room without his apparent notice, but this time he noticed me too quickly. I had a growing feeling that he knew I was there each time and he was waiting for me to say something to him.

But, again, what did I honestly expect?

Feeling no boldness what-so-ever, I shook my head and muttered an apology. I turned to walk back up the stairs when Jareth was suddenly in front of me, a hand propped against the wall, blocking me from walking away. At this proximity, his pleasant smell became the most prominent. Cinnamon was the most recognizable out of the scents that emanated from him.

“Let’s not do this again,” he said quietly. “You keep coming down here to talk to me and have walked away before trying each time. Why is that?”

“You’re angry with me.” The answer came readily to my lips and was not a response I had planned at all.

“What could I  _ possibly _ be angry over?” he asked me in a way that sounded as if my uncanny observation was genuinely on-point. It wasn’t a curious sounding question at all, but one that someone might ask when trying to encourage the other to empathize.

“I have been doing nothing but sticking up in my room. I didn’t come try to talk to you sooner…”

Jareth winced a little at that and shook his head.

“I’m not that step-mother of yours, so no. Try again.” There was the slightest bit of amusement to his tone, but his expression didn’t soften.

His scratchy baritone voice was soothing despite the circumstances, and now that we were talking finally I started feeling a little more relaxed. 

“Well, perhaps you’re a bit angry because I created a mess last time I was here, didn’t reciprocate your feelings, then when I realized what I had lost I begged for another chance like some crazy ex-girlfriend?”

He snorted at me and looked away, shaking his head to clear the half-grin that had appeared apparently without warning. With a sharp inhale through his nose he was once more expressionless.

“Nope,” he said softly. “Try again.”

“I…” I really had to think hard. “I’m not groveling or showing any level of manners?”

“You’re really reaching now, Sarah,” he said, raising an angled eyebrow at me.

“Then I don’t know why you’re angry with me.” I was getting frustrated.

“Then maybe you should consider that I’m not angry at all,” he said smoothly. I stared at him for a moment, unable to respond. He smirked at whatever expression was on my face before continuing. “Trust me, Sarah, if I was angry with you there wouldn’t be any wondering if I was or why. You would be the first to know.”

“That’s…” Good to hear? No. That had scary connotations with it, didn’t it? “... If you were angry with me what would happen?”

“You’ll find out if you make me angry,” he said calmly. “I’d heavily advise against it.”

“You’d send me to the Bog of Eternal Stench, or perhaps leave me in one of many of your oubliettes?”

“Sarah,” he chuckled and shook his head. “I have a lot to teach you about this place. But no. It takes quite a lot to make me angry, and I would reiterate again that I would advise against it.”

“Why won’t you tell me?”

He looked at me curiously, his smirk gone from his face as his eyes stared intently into my own. His owl-like eye seemed to dilate a little more as he observed me.

“Because I don’t know what I’d do. It depends on what made me angry that you did, and I cannot fathom the idea of being angry with you,” he said finally. His tone sounded forcefully patient. “Now, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

I shook my head, suddenly very uncomfortable. I was wasting his time and-. I had apparently started to walk away because his arm shot out in front of me to physically stop me from doing so. I looked up at him. He was not looking at me directly, but I could tell he was watching me out of the peripheral of his eye. He was waiting for an answer and I got the impression that he wouldn’t let me leave until he got an answer.

“I… I just wanted to talk to you in general, honestly…” I didn’t wait for a response. “I’m sorry I’m wasting-.”

Jareth cupped my arm and guided me back in front of him gently. He seemed a little amused.

“You are not ever going to waste my time,” he said in a low tone. “Now, come with me.”

He led me back into the throne room, his hand clutched around my wrist as he guided me around the goblins, and let go once he got to his throne. Ascending the steep steps up he sat and lounged back onto the sparkling purplish cushion surrounded by the gold-colored decorative crescent that made up the back and arms of the seat. He looked at me motioning for me to sit. I pulled myself up onto his throne and sat on the edge uncomfortably. He moved a little, making room for me and a gloved hand touched my shoulder pulling me back against him. I felt his lips against my ear.

“This isn’t exactly what I had in mind,” he said quietly in my ear. “I had meant for you to sit on the steps, but I find that I am unopposed to you sitting up here with me.” Uncomfortable from my embarrassment, I started to go to where I was supposed to go, but the Goblin King discouraged the motion easily. “This is fine.”

I felt a little uneasy with the unintended mishap, but it seemed like it was not so much of a faux pas to Jareth. Trying to distract myself and get back on track, I watched the goblins running amuck in the room, fascinated by the chickens in particular who seemed to run back, almost encouraging the goblins to chase them. It almost looked like children playing.

“Are goblins the wished away children…?” I asked quietly.

“Not every goblin is, but quite a few of them are,” Jareth responded, straightening up a bit to watch the goblins. He seemed disinterested, but I wondered how often they did the chicken chasing. It’s probably something he always sees. “Besides the two hobgoblin guards by the door and myself, everyone in here is an abandoned child.”

“They always turn into goblins?”

“No, not always,” he said gently. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him look at me and begin to play with my long dark brown hair. One of the chickens began to chase the goblins around, flapping its wings frantically. “Sometimes the really young ones change into chickens.”

“You don’t eat them, do you?” I twisted to look at the Goblin King in horror. He stared at me for a moment, his eyebrows raised. 

“You can’t be serious,” he said as he shook his head and grimaced. I didn’t respond immediately, and he looked back at the chase once more.

“There are stories of fairies eating children,” I said in a  _ just-so-you-know _ kind of way. Mainly because I wanted him to understand the context of why that had been a genuine concern. But his reaction was completely unexpected and sudden.

His eyes snapped to me and the air sparked with a heart pounding painful jolt. Even the goblins and chickens immediately stopped what they were doing. Everyone froze.

Ah.

So that’s what he meant when he said I’d know when he was angry? I didn’t know what to do. Nobody moved. I don’t know if I could move even if I wanted to as I felt cemented to the spot.

“Ooooooooooo,” said one of the smaller goblins, breaking the silence. “Lady boss gon’ geddit!”

“Lady boss is in trouble!”

“In trouble! In trouble! Hahahaha!”

The goblins broke into a loud chaotic chorus of jeers at my apparent impending doom. The Goblin King stared at me a little longer before he straightened up in the throne.

“Al-right, you lot,” he punctuated in a low voice. “That’s quite enough.”

The goblins slowly fell silent, each frantically shushing the others. Jareth waited until they finished before looking back at me.

“You have a lot to learn,” he said very quietly. “Lesson one; do not use the term ‘fairy.’” He said the word like it was disgusting. “‘Fae,’ or ‘Sidhe’ is acceptable depending on what context when referring to Fae like myself. If you must refer to our kind as a whole, I would advise use of ‘good folk,’ ‘little folk,’ or even ‘neighbors.’”

“She?” I repeated in confusion.

“We are called many things in different languages, each sometimes referring to other things in another language Sidhe refers to mounds of earth said to be home to faeries. It is also a term that has referred to Faeries of my station. Fae would perhaps be simpler,” Jareth said casually. “I am a Fae king. As with others at my station, referring to us as… “ He closed his eyes and breathed in through his nose slowly and exhaled quickly. “It's equivalent to referring to a human monarch as a monkey. We consider it an offensive slur.”

“Noted,” I muttered, looking down at my knees. I looked up, noticing all the goblins and chickens alike were now paying apt attention to the conversation. Up until that point, Jareth had been paying them no mind.

“Don’t you have something better to do than to stare?”

The goblins scrambled and returned to over-dramatically enacting activities. Eventually the noise returned to it’s usual din. The Goblin King chuckled to himself in quiet amusement. I barely heard him.

“I know you have a general idea of the Labyrinth itself from your adventure, but I think it’s time I showed you around my kingdom.”

I barely had time to acknowledge this before I was suddenly standing on a heap of trash. A yell came from my lips as I suddenly felt myself lose balance and topple backwards. Jareth caught me easily and held me up against him, his hands on my shoulders.

“Unwanted children are not the only things that end up in my labyrinth. This is the hoard of lost and unwanted items,” he said conversationally, as if I didn’t just accidentally launch myself directly into him. “Some of it are items that goblins like to grab from places as well. Half of a pair of shoes or socks, keys, rings, things of that nature. Other items in here are things that someone grew too old for, such as teddy bears, or music boxes.”

There were various collectors patrolling around the heaps of junk, picking up items and examining them, adding them to their own pile on their backs or tossing them back, or resting from their activities.

“Your majesty!” A junk collector approached us excitedly. “I found quite a lot I think you’d be interested in, yes, yes, yes!”

“Some other time, Agnes,” Jareth said curtly, holding me tightly to him as the scenery shifted once more into the swampy Bog of Eternal Stench. “If you aren’t careful, they will pile you under items in their hopeless excitement and bury you alive. I’d highly recommend avoiding the place if you can help it.”

“Ja-reth!” I completely ignored whatever it was he was saying and was desperately trying to move my feet away and avoid a spurting mini stink volcano that was making a rather rude noise and bubbling out. I covered my nose and lifted up my foot in time before a drop landed on my shoe.

The Goblin King only laughed at me.

“You use my name so familiarly, you’d think I gave you permission to do so,” he said, a mischievous hint to his amused tone. Hands still on my shoulders, he forced me to step into the bog water.

“I knew it!” I screeched, scrambling frantically to get my shoe off. “I knew you were angry with me! I knew it! I knew it!”

He let go and stepped away from me while I threw my shoe off and away from me, a misshapen grin lighting up his entire face as he watched me desperately trying to avoid the forever-stink from setting in.

“You are so cruel!” I shouted at him angrily. His grin faded a little into a crooked smirk, as he tilted his head at me. “You know if you wanted to punish me, you might as well just shove me into an oubliette and be done with it… Why’d you have to go and do a thing like this for?!”

“Do a thing like what for?” he asked me, raising his eyebrows in mock innocence.

“Make me stink forever…” I said quietly. He laughed at my plight, much to my chagrin, and stepped over to my shoe which was now wet from the swamp water.

“It doesn’t actually make anyone stink forever,” he said coyly. “It’s only a swamp.”

“Hoggle said-.”

“‘Hoggle?’” The Goblin King handed me my shoe back, which I took gingerly, still not trusting that the bog didn’t actually make someone eternally stinky. “I threaten them with the bog sometimes when they step out of line, but I’ve never actually ‘bogged’ anyone. It’s all based on rumor and speculation. It’s a normal swamp.”

I stared at Jareth for a moment. He was looking at my muddied sock in a more muted amusement. He shook his head slightly and met my gaze.

“Shall we continue?” he asked, holding out his hand.

I put my shoe over my sock and tried to ignore the cold squishy feeling between my toes before I grabbed his hand. Our next stop was the hedge maze where I had met Ludo. I realized the creepy things on the end of the sticks that the goblins here wielded were actually crude hedge trimmers.

The next destinations were the bricked high-wall portion of the labyrinth and the outer walls were the pixies dwelled. We spent less time here as it was starting to get dark out. The final destination was the familiar darkness of one of many oubliettes that dotted the underground portion of the labyrinth.

I clung tightly to Jareth. I wasn’t afraid of the dark as much as I was afraid of him disappearing and leaving me here.Though if he wanted to, he could simply teleport out of my arms without taking me with him, but still, despite that logic, I wrapped my arms around him tightly. He seemed undisturbed by this gesture, even as he spoke, he barely seemed to acknowledge that I suddenly clung to him besides raising his hands to clutch at my shoulders which made me think for a brief moment that he would push me off of him.

He fell silent after he stated that he didn’t use the oubliettes. They were more of a deterrent than they were an actual dungeon. 

I hid my face against his collar, closing my eyes though it did no good. I could see just as much darkness that way as I did with them open. Jareth’s hands moved around my shoulders into an embrace.

“You’re shaking, Sarah,” the Goblin King whispered softly. “Are you scared of the dark?”

“Not particularly.” It could be lit up and I’d still be terrified. I felt the floor shift slightly and dim light hit my closed eyelids.

“Better?”

I shook my head. I wasn’t ready to let go yet. He patiently waited for a little bit.

“It is time to sleep, Sarah,” he softly whispered, pressing his lips gently against my ear. I felt my knees buckle a little, but I only clung harder to him.

“I… May I make a silly request?”

“Hmm?” He dropped his voice into a lower octave and it almost sounded like a purr. He was completely overriding my anxiety and putting me to sleep.

“Let me sleep with you tonight.”

I felt his lips twist into either a smile or a smirk against my ear as he snorted.

“Beg me, precious, and maybe I just might let you in my bed with me tonight.”

“Please…I don’t want to be alone tonight. Just… Just no funny stuff ok?”

He let go of me with one arm to sweep it under my knees and lift me up. I opened my eyes and looked wildly at him. We were in my bedroom in the castle and he was walking to the door.

“‘Funny stuff?’” he repeated.

“You know…” I looked away to the door as it opened completely on its own. He was silent for a little longer than I’d have liked as we approached his more ornate door. I didn’t want to look at his face at the moment but I knew he was probably contemplating my words. 

There is no beating around the bush with Jareth though, I reminded myself scornfully.

“More directly, I mean don’t take any sexual advances just because I’m sleeping with you, ok?” I winced at the awkward bluntness.

“I wasn’t intending on it, precious.”

Why does he keep calling me that? He deposited me onto his bed, and crawled over top of me.

“Jareth, I mean it,” I warned him sleepily. He leaned down and pressed his lips to my ear again.

“I keep my promises, but I do need to strip some of your clothing off you,” he warned gently. “You’re a bit muddy.”

He had yanked off my socks and shoes without moving. I began to wiggle out of my pants as he lifted me up to take off my vest. He made a noise of surprise when he noticed, but assisted me before pulling the covers over me up to my shoulders.

“Please don’t leave me,” I requested, trying to clutch at Jareth’s shoulder. My hand dropped limply as my entire body became heavy.

“I won’t ever leave you, no.”


	4. Titania and Oberon

* * *

**Titania and Oberon**

* * *

It was still somewhat dark out when I felt Jareth move, which woke me up enough to open my eyes and peer over at him. He was sitting up.  _ And shirtless. _ I was about to reach out to him when I noticed that something seemed different about him. He seemed tense, but it could have just been the dim light playing tricks on my eyes.

I touched his back, which made him flinch a bit. He turned his head swiftly to peer at me over his shoulder, and I realized his pupils were reflecting the light coming in from the window as he stared at me a second. It was startling at first, but I relaxed more when I saw the profile of his face after he turned to look at the window then back to the door.

“That’s a little scary, Jareth,” I murmured to myself quietly. It occurred to me that the reflection of light was coming from his pupils. Both seemed to be dilated to the max.

He turned his head to look back at me again. I couldn’t see his expression at all, only his glowing pupils.

“That. The glowing eye thi-.” He covered my mouth gently. He gestured around his face, I could only assume he was shushing me.

Then I heard a bowl drop somewhere which made Jareth and I both jump. He moved to get up, but I curled my fingers tightly around his arm in a silent protest against him leaving me. He placed a hand over mine as if he intended to rip it off, his fingers curling over my wrist firmly.

“It’s probably just one of the goblins or the chickens,” I said with a shrug.

“Then why are you clinging to me in terror?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper. I’d almost missed what he said.

I didn’t have an answer for him. Jareth moved out of my grasp and disappeared so fast I had to blink several times before I realized he wasn’t there any more. The room seemed to get tense, and a sense of foreboding made being alone in the dark unbearable. I felt like I was being stared at by demons who surrounded me, waiting to pounce.

I looked around and to my absolute horror I saw a pair of glowing orbs, much larger than Jareth’s, staring at me by the window. They were not reflecting light, but glowing yellow. I could make out a deer antler, but my eyes refused to acknowledge anything more as my body kicked into its own gear. Before I even realized what I was doing, I was running through the doorway at the other side of the room. My heels hit the brick with enough force that I could feel each step through my entire body. I casted a glance behind me to see if the creature was following.

He was. And silently.

My stomach was twisted in fear.

“Jareth!” I yelled frantically.

The whole corridor lit up suddenly, the braziers bursting into flames and swiftly igniting themselves, and a fully armored Goblin King appeared in my path. I was too close to stop and slammed right into him. He wrapped his arms around me before I fell.

“Oh my,” giggled the creature behind me. I wasn’t expecting such a mischievous, boyish tone from an antlered monster. I turned my head slightly to look back at him. His large yellow cat-slitted eyes twinkled in a less than friendly way, a very genuinely elated smile spread across his child-like face. Extremely thick green hair fell down towards his deer satyr like bottom-half, two deer antlers sprouting miraculously on his head.

“Father,” Jareth greeted tensely. I looked up at him in shock, but when I looked back at his father, I could sort of see small resemblances. The texture of his hair seemed to be the same feathered fluffiness and their builds seemed similar in the torso. “Where is Mother?”

“Coming shortly,” the deer-man replied in a thrilled tone. He looked at me and winked, pressing a finger to his lips, telling me to be quiet. “She doesn’t know I beat her here.”

“Don’t I?”

A second unfamiliar person with a very soft, melodic young female voice, walked from behind Jareth. She looked more related to Jareth than the father did. Her violet eyes also had slitted pupils, but her face was much more angular and matched Jareth’s nearly exactly. Her long, smooth, raven-black hair spilled liquid-like around her down to her feet, a woven circlet of green branches upon the crown of her head. She was quite beautiful, and I couldn’t help but stare a little longer than I should have. Her eyes flicked to mine before Jareth casually but quickly covered my eyes with a gloved hand..

_ “It’s very rude to stare!” _ The grumpy, loud voice of the deaf door knocker came to my mind suddenly.

“Oh, come on, now,” giggled the mad-sounding deer. “I couldn’t help myself, she just looked too cute, my love.”

I must have missed part of the conversation while I was mesmerized by how beautiful Goblin King’s mother was. He most certainly inherited her looks. I wanted to look back at her, but he wouldn’t move his hand. I made a noise in my throat of annoyance without meaning to as I grabbed his hand and tried to yank it off my eyes. But it was not possible. He didn’t even seem to move a little against my struggling.

“Is she still human?” the beautiful voice asked. There was something in her tone I didn’t like. Whatever it was that displeased her, I felt in my whole body I wanted to fix. I pushed uselessly against Jareth, trying to get away so I could please this lady. Tears stung my eyes as I fearfully discovered that he wasn’t letting me go.

“Yes, Mother.”

“You might want to do something about that, Jareth.”

_ Anything.  _ I will do anything for you!

Much to my pleasure, Jareth finally let go of my eyes, but forced me to look at him, cupping my face between both his gloved hands. At first I wanted to get away, to look back at the woman, but after a second I stopped and stared at Jareth in shock.

His intense attention on me was making my heart race. His eyes were back to their usual icy blue and owl-black. His face was androgynously beautiful to look at, framed by fluffy thick blond hair. I could feel my cheeks burning. The Goblin King appeared to look rather confused and let me go.

I instantly became aware of the fact I wasn’t wearing anything but a baggy shirt and my underwear. I had completely forgotten. My face was already red, so nobody seemed to notice anything different.

“Sarah, was it?” asked Jareth’s mother. “I am Titania, and that is my husband, Oberon.”

“A pleasure!” Oberon greeted happily.

Titania and Oberon? Like from Shakespeare?

“Sarah…” Jareth looked so reproachfully at me that I wondered if I had said that thought out loud. I covered my face in embarrassment.

“It’s alright, Jareth, I am not offended.”

“Hm? She’s so cute when she’s shy, too!”

“There are more important things to deal with right now.” Titania added, ignoring her husband’s outbursts.

“Mother?”

“We will meet you downstairs.”

“I’ll meet you down there.”

A very brief moment of silence, before I felt Jareth’s gloved hand against my back. I lowered my hands from my face as he steered me gently towards his room. I didn’t want to speak at first, afraid that I had angered him. When we reached his bed, I gathered enough courage to speak.

“I’m sorry…”

“She has a natural glamor to her that humans tend to be more strongly drawn to,” he said flatly. His expression gave nothing away if he was upset. “You were unprepared and I am at fault for that.”

“You stopped me, though.”

He hesitated and looked at me quietly in contemplation before smiling at me.

“I didn’t do anything, actually.”

“You didn’t use your own glamor on me to dazzle me?” It was less of a question and more of an accusation.

“No, actually,” he said, a crease forming between his brows as he frowned slightly. “I was about to but you seemed to distract yourself on your own… I dazzle you, huh?” His voice slid subtly into mischievous amusement.

Jareth’s crooked, sharp-toothed grin made my heart jump in place. He froze a moment, then he leaned in. For a second I was sure he was about to kiss me, but instead he only re-adjusted the sheets on the bed.

“I’ll be back in a bit, Sarah,” he said softly. “Go back to sleep.”

He must have used his magic in that command, because as soon as my head hit the pillow, the blackness of unconscious sleep swiftly took over.

When I next opened my eyes, Jareth was sitting on edge of the bed, his fingers steepled and pressed against his lips, his elbows resting against his knees. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew whatever it was Titania and Oberon had to say to him must have been monumentally disturbing. I thought about turning over and giving him more time to process whatever it was he needed to, but he already seemed to know I was awake.

“Sarah…” I immediately became apprehensive. He sounded as if he was cornered and anxious. This was never a tone I thought I’d hear from the Goblin King. “I needed to make a decision. It’s not one you will like.”

“What won’t I like about it?” I asked, my tone flattening.

“You are strong willed and I doubt you like decisions regarding yourself being made without your say so.”

“That is usually the case,” I agreed.

“Before I continue,” he said painfully. “For the past week, you have been eating food from our realm. Spend any more time here and you will become one of us and will never fit back into human society perfectly. Now would be the time for you to decide if you wish to retu-.”

“Whatever happened to ‘what’s said is said?’” I demanded, cutting him off abruptly. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m far happier here with you than I could ever be there.”

He froze and looked at me, his mouth open as if wanting to disagree with something I said, shut it, then twisted back to stare at his hands. I swallowed and began to feel increasingly uneasy. It didn’t help that he was silent. I began to anticipate things he could or would say that would all be heartbreaking.

He sighed.

“I hadn’t found anyone to be my queen,” he said quietly. “Before you came around, I wanted no one. But... “ He looked back up to me with a very sad look in his eyes. “Mother arranged that I was to be engaged to a Fae of the Autumn Court. Maeve was promised to me for political reasons but then… Then you came along and I... “ He looked back at his gloved hands once more. A moment of silence passed and I was unsure if he was going to continue his sentence.

“And you, what?”

He sighed very heavily.

“And I fell in love with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Titania and Oberon have inspired appearances and personalities from Mahou Tsukai no Yome (The Ancient Magus' Bride) with some slight creative changes on my part. And anyone familiar with Maeve from my last fic, please note that she is one of my biggest changes as far as her role. (Don't spoil it though!)


	5. A Forced Arrangement

* * *

**A Forced Arrangement**

* * *

I’ve made so many mistakes in my life and broke so many rules without ever meaning to out of my sheer oaf-like clumsiness, it’s ridiculous.

I mean, I’m not perfect, and I never will be, but it never once occurred to me during my Labyrinth run those many years ago to  _ not _ eat fae food. When Hoggle gave me the peach, it could have very well been the death of me. It  _ should  _ have been the death of me if any faerie story was to be believed. But I survived almost ten whole years without any other effects outside of the quiet hidden yearning to return here.

Could that have been the reason I was so desperate to come back?

I’d known how many close calls I had with Jareth when I mouthed off to him. He could have ended my life there or caused me suffering if he had wanted to. The only good thing I seemed to have an instinct against was not accepting his gift in exchange for Toby.

But yet here he was, openly admitting to being in love with me.

Well, admitting to that on the backseat of informing me that he had been promised to some Autumn Fae for political reasons.

I was sixteen when he fell in love with me. If he had been human, he’d probably look to be a man in his late twenties. I’d been innocent enough that it honestly never occurred to me what level of danger I’d so readily placed myself in, pretending to have some level of power against him based off a story book. I also felt something, though I had no idea what it had been at the time.

My desire to save Toby at any cost and fix what I was at fault for overrode my feelings and I paid them no heed. Except for the ballroom dream.

I didn’t remember much of it anymore besides dancing, but I did remember that he had enchanted the peach to isolate me from my memory of Toby’s rescue. But somehow, towards the end of that dance, the pained look then the clock tolling, and my desperation to find whatever it was I had been looking for returned.

His actions seemed like a spoiled child used to getting his way and it made me realize I took another thing for granted, assuming he had always had the throne. Assuming Jareth just always had been the Goblin King. He very well could have been the same general age as me in terms of years and I wouldn’t have ever known. Things aren’t always what they seem here, after all.

Maybe he was like me, was new to feeling that feeling and had no idea how to properly express it.

_ “Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave.” _

It’s such an old concept now that I think about it. At the time he said it, I had thought he was begging me to worship or idolize him and stop fighting against him. I had absolutely no idea that he was essentially proposing a relationship.

Though how would I have honestly reacted when I was sixteen at being more obviously proposed to by the Goblin King?

I didn’t have an answer.

Jareth frequently visited me in owl form. And some days I had the best kind of luck. Others I had the worst. I wish I had known it had been him long before the night I begged him to allow me to return. Or would I have?

There was a boy my age I had been trying to date at the time. That was when I had the worst luck. It was very likely that Jareth sabotaged that relationship in the background now that I considered it more thoughtfully.

No. No that’s not quite right.

The boy had a horrible personality, and Jareth, if he had any play in it, only did enough for me to see the real nasty part of this person. I remembered the day only vaguely. I was offended by his treatment of the diner staff after not getting his order just right.

My luck stayed rather terrible for days until I finally saw the owl again.

I probably should be a little more disturbed that the Fae seemed so obsessed with me. But part of me was vain and liked the idea of his attention. It was something I romanticized even before I was sixteen, when I first read stories of princes rescuing their princesses and swept them off their feet.

Owls were my favorite animal, besides cats. I’d often go as a kid to visit that barn owl in the park. For some reason it never occurred to me until now that that owl was the same owl that would perch outside our house. Had Jareth been watching me since I was little?

Fae were strange, and their customs were too far different to compare them to humans. If Jareth had been human, this all would have been extremely creepy to me. I was not stupid or near as naive enough anymore to know that had I could have easily put myself in danger. I lived in a protected bubble, it seemed. Maybe I always had the Goblin King’s favor. Regardless, being in my twenties now and understanding how the human world worked, I cringed at the thought of having anyone’s attention who was clearly so much older than myself. It was predatory and it was clearly grooming, in terms of human behavior.

But in terms of Jareth, the Goblin King, a Fae with power and abilities I could barely fathom, it was hard to apply human behavior concepts knowing how different from a human he truly was. It would always be imbalanced in terms of power if we were a couple no matter how old I got.

Back in a different, medieval time, when the human life span was far shorter due to disease and war, when religion was a much bigger construct that controlled nearly every element, things were different then, too, even for humans. As a child I’d often fantasized the concept of a knight in shining armor I’d long been promised to as a child. I loved the idea, thinking it was the most romantic thing ever. Fairy tales were based upon those very old medieval concepts.

So it was not so far fetched to me that the Fae world had nothing demonizing the current concept of predatory behavior. Fae love was different depending on what story you read, and I read many when I was young. Far more adult books than I should have been allowed, but my mother had been to blame for that. In some stories, their love is sexually charged. But the more I think about it, the more I come to understand that this was probably just a nymphomaniac's version of romanticism of the Fae.

Obviously, there was some level of procreation. Jareth referred to Titania and Oberon as his parents, so there was clearly a level of joining somewhere. Jareth wore enough tight pants that I knew he had parts for it. So maybe it wasn’t such a far fetched idea to apply human behavior concepts to a Fae.

It was a lot to think about.

So then I asked myself again; how would I have honestly reacted when I was sixteen at being more obviously proposed to by the Goblin King?

Taking into account all that? I’d say I’d have probably taken it. Would it have been a mistake? No more different than my position in the decision now, I’d think. I have no more power over Jareth now than I did then. Though now I was mature enough to actually respect that level of power, even if I didn’t know the depth of it.

I admit it had initially disturbed me that he had fallen for me when I was that young, and considering the attention I received at a younger age from the owl that I know understood to be Jareth, it didn’t paint his favor in a good light.

I took a deep breath and shook away my thoughts.

It doesn’t mean it was sexually based though, I am again making the mistake of applying human concepts and ideas to a powerful Fae. They were not built the same as us. So in the end, I suppose, to settle myself on it I would simply ask Jareth what he was thinking the whole time.

“When did you fall in love with me?” I asked him. Direct questions would get me answers.

“I only became aware that I had fallen for you during the masquerade prison I had designed for you,” he answered. His back was turned toward me as he leaned his elbows against his knees. His long pointed ears were more clearly visible now that his fluffy nearly-white hair was falling around his face. I wouldn’t see his expressions if he made any. “You were stripped of every worry and concern of Toby, every memory, you should not have even recognized me. Yet, through the spell I placed on you, you saw and remembered me.”

“You were around the park a lot when I was a kid,” I said quietly. “You were watching me then, weren’t you?”

He moved to peer at me, his brows knit together in confusion, not understanding the direction I was implying I thought.

“Nevermind,” I said, shaking my head. “Forget that question. So what about your previous engagement?”

“I broke it off, of course.”

“Why?” His confused look turned into a glare out of the corner of his eye before he turned his back to me once more. It was obvious he did not like being questioned. “Jareth-.”

“I would have broken it off anyway, I wasn’t interested in the politics of the courts..”

“Surely-.”

“I do not have to explain myself to you,” he said coldly, his tone dropping an octave. He stood up and walked over to the window, leaning against it with one arm propped above his head. There was a breeze coming in with the dawn as the sun began rising, and it touched his hair, revealing the two earrings hanging from the lobes of his pointed ears. He was beautiful in a very androgynous sense, even when irritated.

I slid out of bed and walked over to him. He had heeled boots on, which made him look even taller than he normally did, and I could not help but find this Fae attractive.

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, I just am trying to figure out if I’m the bad guy here,” I said, touching his elbow. He turned his head to stare at me strangely. He pursed his lips into a thin line. When he spoke, his tone trembled as he fought to keep himself level.

“As I told my Mother, I will not have a Queen who is disgusted with my goblins and deliberately sought to harm them whenever they were within her sight. She is not welcome here. This is  _ my  _ kingdom and they are  _ my  _ subjects, and I will not allow some pretty little delusional tantrum-throwing  _ shit _ to harm anyone or anything as long as I hold the throne.” His voice had gradually crescendoed to an ear drum pounding level. That electric feeling sparked heavier and heavier as it did so. He looked away from me and glared angrily across the labyrinth, the silence ringing almost as painfully as his raised voice had. I felt rooted by the spot by the static in the air and my mouth was locked tight on its own. When he next spoke, his voice had returned to quieter levels, but the electricity remained present. “She is not welcomed here. And I did not appreciate the arrangement, much to Mother and Father’s distaste.” He winced a little and the electricity died down. “Instead, I offered a counter arrangement.”

I already knew what he was going to say before he even said it. It made sense as to why he was worried about how I would take the news, and even offered to send me back home prior to its delivery.

I found the sentiment touching, but it wasn’t necessary.

“You arranged for me to be engaged to you instead,” I said quietly.

He didn’t answer.

What would you do if I refused and insisted upon going back to the human world, I wonder? Would you chase after me? Beg me? Or would you let me go?

“What happens if I refuse?”

“Mother will force the arrangement to Maeve and I will not have a say in it.”

“I’m not a Fae, nor am I royalty,” I said softly, biting my lower lip nervously. I looked away from the Goblin King and looked out the window to the Goblin City just beneath us. “Wouldn’t I just be a concubine?”

I heard him snort in amusement.

“No, you would become my queen. Queen of the goblins. Fae monarchy works in terms of power and ability, not land ownership like in the human world. We do not take concubines. I am the king, and you would become my mate, therefore my queen.”

I didn’t look up at him, embarrassed at being laughed at. He seemed to have been waiting for a response, but when he got none, he continued on.

“As far as you not being a Fae,” he said, his tone increasingly more amused. He produced a mirror out of nowhere and held it in front of me, stepping behind me and brushing my hair behind my ears.

I hadn’t seen my reflection in nearly a week but already I saw a stranger. My ears had definitely gotten longer and there was a point to them and my face seemed a lot more symmetrical. My hair seemed to have a reddish hue showing through the brown and my eyes more of a vibrant green, but that may have just been my imagination or the light hitting them just right. My face seemed thinner, as well.

“It’s still reversible, if you want to return home,” he said quietly into my ear, his tone sending me into an involuntary shiver. I saw his responding smirk in the mirror’s reflection, but I was too preoccupied by how pretty we looked in the mirror together. He put the mirror away and looked at me with raised eyebrows when I peered back at him. “Well?”

Well what? Oh, right. He was still waiting for my response to the engagement.

“Fine,” I said looking away from his intense gaze. “I am unopposed to being your queen.”

Whatever that implies. Part of me worried if I was making a mistake, but so far it did not seem to be so terrible. Beyond that, it felt like I was doing the goblins a favor. I didn’t know what this Maeve-person did to receive this level of detestment from Jareth, but it must have been quite offensive.

“I’ll bring the news to Mother then,” he said, sounding quite pleased.


	6. Well, That Was Anticipated

* * *

**Well, That Was Anticipated**

* * *

Being engaged to the King of the Goblins had some rather interesting perks.

First, the goblins would bring me breakfast everyday. They’d somehow already known my favorite things to eat and what I would be craving that morning. I had free reign of the kingdom in the morning, but at noon I would have to return to Jareth to join him for a private luncheon, followed by tutoring in the afternoon. We would take a walk together in the evening if we had time, always different spots of the kingdom, until it was supper time. Supper was a lot more overwhelming as it included all the goblins and chickens that filled the throne room packed inside the lengthy, gigantic dining room at the end of the hallway from the throne room. Sometimes food fights would occur, in which both myself and Jareth would of course participate with. Dessert and tea would follow, and then Jareth and I would retire either to our own rooms or to his upon my decision on the matter. I was always given the choice to join him in his bedroom. More often than not I preferred the company of his arms over falling asleep alone.

In that first week, I had been worried Jareth would expect consummation, but aside from kissing my forehead or my cheek he hadn’t made any gesture of physical expectancy in our relationship.

The morning walks were always accompanied by a guard. It was then that I was able to request Sir Didymus. Hoggle and Ludo would have joined me on my morning walks if they weren’t busy tending to the gardens, but Sir Didymus was always pleased to come along. He often chatted about the various goings on of the goblins and the various duties being taken care of.

Jareth’s tutoring sessions varied a little day by day. There wasn’t much testing, just introduction of a concept, questions and answers, and a conclusion. Some sessions took longer than others, but they never seemed to carry on until the next day.

The first session was about himself and probably the most shocked I’d ever been. I had been expecting the unexpected, I had thought, but Jareth easily proved that I hadn’t been expecting enough unexpected with him.

He had set down his teacup gently after explaining to me the tutoring sessions and how they would go, and gently warned me to not be alarmed at the next thing he was going to show me.

“Sarah,” he said softly. “As a precaution, please put down your tea, I do not want it spilling all over you.” After I did so, he smiled at me reassuringly. “Of course you know that I can form myself into an owl already.”

I was glad I had put down my cup of tea, because in a sudden burst of near-white feathering, it was quite startling to find myself staring at a very large owl-like beast who stood where Jareth had been not a moment before.

He was tall. Very tall. There was certainly something still barn owl-like in his appearance, especially with the snow-white feathering around his face. His intense black eyes had me frozen to the spot, like the freezing void of space. Instead of a beak, he had a feline-like snout with large, pronounced sharp cuspids, the top ones visible even with his mouth shut. His fluffy hair had become a thick mane of uneven feathers, two long pointed ears protruding out from that fluffy feathering, and two large dark antlers that matched his father’s. His arms were elongated into enormous wings, his hands, now only two fingered and an opposable thumb, were claws at the alula, his primary feathers reaching out farther, doubling his arm length and his tail feathers looked more like a long tail at the moment. His stood on his two front talons as if they were digitigrade, rather than standing on the whole foot, his too back talons of each foot curled inward.

He tilted his head slightly at me and waited for me to recover.

“You…” I started. I fell silent. I was less scared by Jareth, himself, and more startled at the sudden massive owl beast that towered over me. I had no doubt he could tower even higher if the ceiling would allow for it, as his antlers seemed to tap the top on occasion.

“‘ _ You _ ?’” he asked gently, encouraging me to continue what it was I was saying. He sounded the same at least. He leaned forward, bringing his face down closer to mine, flashing his sharp teeth in a grin. “Scared of me, Sarah?”

“No,” I started to say.

“Don’t lie,” he tilted his head again, leaning even closer, his black eyes were clearly reflecting myself back at me. “I can see you trembling.”

“You ask me if I was scared of you,” I stated stubbornly. “I am not scared. Startled, yes. But wouldn’t you be startled too if I suddenly became a giant right next to you?”

He stayed in that form for the remainder of that lesson. Talking about Fae, weaknesses I should pay attention to as they were now my own, important rules to follow, and finally ending with a quick lesson on “glamor.” Glamor was a Fae’s way to mask their form, be it their face or their entire body. It was effectively a full shift, but only in magic, rather than form. Glamor could be dispelled and was generally only used for small things like changing ear shape when visiting the human world, or even completely appearing as another person. Different forms were different in that it could not be dispelled and they were not changing.

Jareth had three forms. His humanoid form, his owl form, and then the one I saw before me..

“Can you tell which one is my true form?” he challenged. There was concern on his face.

“This one.”

“Are you guessing?” he frowned.

“No, you were looking worried when you asked me which one was your real form,” I said, shrugging. “You would have been less worried asking that question if the answer was either of your other forms. You really expected me to run screaming, didn’t you?”

“... Yes.” he admitted, shifting back to his humanoid form. “Actually.”

“If you are disappointed in my lack of terror, I can run now, if you’d like?” I offered.

“Instead, how about we just go for a walk?”

The other sessions went much more boringly. There was one on the courts, their systems, what it was like and the individual leaders of each court.

Titania and Oberon were high queen and high king of the Seelie courts which were made up of the Summer and Spring courts. The spring court was led by King Puck, and the Summer court led by King Ariel. The Seelie courts were more human friendly and provided magic and acted as familiars to mages when bonded. They usually grant good luck the most.

The Erlking, Madoc, was the high king of the Unseelie courts which were made up of the Winter and Autumn courts. The Autumn court was led by Queen Maeve (the one Jareth was arranged with originally before I came along,) and the Winter court was led by Queen Mab. The Unseelie courts were the most resentful of mankind and the majority of them thought humans were evil creatures hellbent on destroying their natural home.

Jareth and his kingdom was under the winter court, therefore he answered to Queen Mab and then the Erlking.

“Do you think humans are evil creatures then?” I asked him.

“Yes,” he responded as if I should have already known that answer. “And ‘no’ to your follow up question which would have likely been ‘do you think I’m evil, then, Jareth?’”

The lesson did not continue from there, as he started telling me stories about some of the children turned-goblin. Some of them were quite upsetting, like the child that wished themselves to be taken to the goblins from the sheer abuse and neglect he received on a daily basis. Or the little girl that was wished away by her older brother who wanted to be an only child.

The next few lessons were on magic and it’s different forms. The different kinds of Faeries. Then a lesson on what a queen of the Goblins’ duties were and what Jareth expected from me.

It was after that lesson when things took a small leap in an anticipated negative direction.

“Hello, there!” greeted the familiarly mischievous boyish tone of Oberon.

Jareth and I both were both examining a very large, very old tree that quite possibly was the oldest tree in the forest when his father came out of nowhere. I spun on my heel, startled at first, before remembering my manners Jareth taught me.

“I hope this day finds you well, King Oberon” I greeted formally.

“Well, well! I see Jareth  _ can _ whip you into shape!” he said grinning unkindly. I tried my hardest to not react in offense. “Unfortunately, I do not come bringing good news, Jareth. As expected, Maeve was quite offended by the news of you choosing an earth-born over herself.”

“I didn’t think she would take the news lightly,” Jareth said quietly. “I never made her banishment from my kingdom public, so I was anticipating a public retaliation upon the news of my engagement.”

“Hm.. I suppose you are unaware then,” Oberon said tapping his chin. “There has been an emergency summons to the Erlking’s castle, Jareth. You are being put on trial and the hearing is occurring in a short span of time.”

“Hearing?” Jareth looked shocked. He shook his head and sighed in aggravation. “Very well. Let us be on our way then.”

They disappeared instantly, leaving me behind, by myself, in the forest.


	7. The Erlking

* * *

**The Erlking**

* * *

It was a strange feeling.

I really had no idea how attached I’d actually gotten to Jareth until he disappeared suddenly. There were no goodbyes nor promises to return. No kiss on the cheek or a hug, either. He just simply vanished.

I found myself slumped against the large tree we had been looking at before his father showed up. I was numb, I think. I didn’t know what I was feeling. Time had sped up and it felt like I wasn’t even acknowledging the world around me anymore.

Is this despair? Is this what it feels like?

I barely registered that it started raining. It wasn’t until I sharted shivering that I even realized I was wet and cold.

“This makes things easy, I suppose.”

I jumped up and twisted around in place, trying to find the source of the unfamiliar voice. I did not recognize it at all.

Wait.

Was it snowing?

I looked around the forest in shock. The rain had stopped and sure enough, bustling through the trees was a snow storm. I could barely see ahead of me.

“Do stop moving around so much,” the voice said malevolently. “I would rather deal with you quickly, Earth-born.”

What do I do? What should I say? Think quickly, Sarah!

“Who are you?!”

Right. Really classy, Sarah. Try harder! What would Sir Didymus say?

“That is, I mean to say I would like to know who it is who will best me.in battle, and if he is chivalrous enough to allow me a fighting chance?”

There was silence. The wind seemed to wail through the trees and they creaked and groaned from the wind that they buffered. I couldn’t imagine the chaos outside of the forest. Snow. And a masculine voice. As powerful as this Fae must be, there was only really one guess as to who it could be.

“High King of the Unseelie Court, Erlking Madoc, I wish that you would speak to me face-to-face in a civil manner.”

Well, wishes didn’t work. I should have known that.

There was more silence. Was his plan really to just freeze me to death. I suppose it was merciful. I’d be cold for a little, then I’d get sleepy and just never wake up. Uncomfortable, but if there was any preference to dying, this would be it for sure.

After all, what could I do? I had no magical ability, at least none that Jareth could find or coax out. I couldn’t turn into a giant owl, or anything. I couldn’t even teleport.

What am I thinking?

I’m not thinking, that’s what. I’m so cold I can’t even tell if I’m shivering out of fear or hypothermia. Think harder, then, Sarah. Your life depends on it.

Hmmm. Maybe if I screamed at him that he had no power over me, like I did to Jareth, maybe he might let me go.

No, quit joking around. Think harder than that.

I looked at the snow collecting on the ground and tears started to sting my eyes. I looked in the direction of the castle, though I couldn’t see it through the thick layers of falling snow.

“If you’re going to kill me, just do it now,” I said through my trembling jaw. “Don’t hurt the goblins.”

The snow lessened then ceased. 

“ _ You _ want to protect  _ them _ ?” the voice sounded incredulous. “Why? They are goblins.”

“They are my friends…” Hoggle the dwarf, Sir Didymus, Ludo the rock troll, the chickens, the wyrm, the well-meaning fireys, the finger-biting pixies, and the child-like goblins and hobgoblins. They were all friends.

Stepping out of the shadows, a very winters Fae appeared. His long, white hair spilled around his charcoal-colored face, black ebony horns jutting angularly out of his head, short pointed ears just barely showing beneath the crown of ice that adorned his head. His armor was a combination of ice and ebony metal-like material. He stared down at me in disgust.

“ _ ‘Friends _ ,’” he repeated. “How very childish.”

“Well, I care about them, doesn’t that make them friends?” I asked. He didn’t respond immediately, only scowled.

“He was right,” the Erlking Madoc said finally to himself. “Quite naive, but well-meaninged. Useless at her duties without magic, however. It’s unusual for a Fae, even an earth-born, to have no magic, so I am rather disturbed by this evidence…”

“The goblins don’t have magic.” I frowned.

“See, that’s the funny thing,” he responded boredly. “Goblins do have magic. Rudimentary, but magic nonetheless. You seem to have absolutely no ability at all.”

“Well, that’s fantastically like me, isn’t it?” I responded exasperatedly.

“Be quiet, Sarah,” he snapped. It was the first time he’d used my name. I wanted to say something about that, to ask where he got it, but my lips remained frozen together.

At least my jaw stopped trembling.

“I’ve seen enough to be convinced,” he said coldly. I didn’t understand what was going on. “Come.”

He grabbed my arm just above the elbow and yanked it up roughly. The scenery changed around me, and suddenly we stood before huge dark doors elaborately decorated with silver. There was arguing on the other side, muffled by the thick doors.

“The hearing?” I asked. “It doesn’t seem to be going well, at all.”

Madoc stared at me a moment as if confused, then shook his head.

“They never do, honestly” he said. “By every account, this is honestly the most tame I’ve seen.”

“You… Weren’t going to kill me, were you.” I looked up at him. I felt like a child compared to his height.

“No,” he said, looking highly amused. “I was simply testing you for evidence in the hearing.”

_ No! _

“You’re going to tell them how pathetic I looked...” I chewed at the inner corner of my lip.

“They witnessed the whole thing in real time,” he said simply, his amusement only increasing. “I don’t need to tell them.”

With that, the doors opened, and Madoc guided me to the center of the room. It was a chaotic range of creatures. Lady Titania was sitting on the right most of the two raised intricately decorated thrones, her eyes half-open as if bored. Oberon sat at her feet, a look of malicious delight on his face as he watched the arguing in the room. To the right of the room stood a mess of brightly colored individuals, but their colors seemed very spring and summery. To the left were the winter and autumn courts. My heart jumped upon spying Jareth at the very center, his arms crossed before his chest. He only wore a black loose blouse that was opened in the front, the sickle he normally wore around his neck glinting in the light given off the braziers on the walls, his pants and boots equally black.

I’d never seen him brooding, but there he was. He must have heard the doors, as many of the arguing Fae fell silent and all eyes fell on me. All but Jareth’s.

I thought back to what I said to Madoc and wondered if he was embarrassed of me.

I felt my cheeks burn.


	8. Why Don’t You Look Me in the Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Some sensitive subjects such as abuse and a teeny bit of violence.

* * *

**Why Don’t You Look Me in the Eyes**

* * *

I wouldn’t say I had the worst life, but I could certainly claim that it wasn’t good.

When I was little, maybe six or so, my mother ran off with some actor. At the time, I understood very little of what was going on except that my mother was unhappy with her marriage to my father. She’d often tell me it was my fault they got married to start with, and for whatever reason I thought she was right and I’d work so hard to get her approval I’d never receive. She was my favorite parent, though, because there was often really good times that seemed, in my mind, to offset the bad times.

Of course, realistically, there were never truly any good times, but I wanted so badly for her to finally approve of me.

She left me in the park. Abandoned me. In the rain.

After what felt like forever, an owl coaxed me away from the bench I was sitting on and played with me. It would hop from tree to tree, and the silly child that I was would follow. At the time, of course, I had no idea that this was Jareth, King of the Goblins.

Dad found me a little later. I wonder if he didn’t if I’d have been taken to the Goblin Kingdom to become one of the court goblins.

I’d often return to visit the owl on more than one occasion, fancying myself a Princess, or something of that nature, that could talk to animals. The owl often would be there, let me play with it, let me talk. For a while, the owl was my only friend, because he was the only one that had witnessed what had happened. I kept asking the owl if I deserved what happened and would replay it and try to angle it constantly, desperate to find any nuance that would absolve Mom from leaving me behind.

Surely, I had thought, if I had done things differently, said something different, she would have taken me with her.

Looking back on it now, it made sense why I ever had the Goblin King’s favor to start with.

Karen, or Irene as she prefers to go by, was the reason I detested my Dad. She was cruel, inhuman, and the beast she birthed made her no better. Dad was never one to pay much attention to anyone but Karen, and it always felt like he only paid any attention to me when Karen was upset with me. Otherwise, it honestly felt like he didn’t care too much for me and just dealt with the cards he was given as little as possible.

I found the book called “The Labyrinth,” at the library. It occurred to me now that when I found it, I had actually run into a gentleman that suspiciously looked like a version of the Goblin King. Maybe it was him. The guy encouraged me to check it out; it was one of his favorite fairytale stories . I wish I could remember his voice then I could tell if it was Jareth or just an honest coincidence.

The story started off (as fairytales tended to) with a Princess who lived in a kingdom far, far away. She had the attention of the King of the Goblins and one night, after a particularly foul night, she cursed her little brother for being the crown prince. She would never inherit the throne unless he was out of the way. Horrified, she found out that Jareth had been listening as she wished her brother away to the Goblin Kingdom. The end of the story came where the Goblin King and the princess had a final confrontation where she said that line that I would work so hard to memorize.

The moral was in duality between a warning against selfishness and self-empowerment, I had thought. I became obsessed with the story.

When I wished my brother away, part of me wanted to be like that princess. But I met a different Goblin King than in the story.

Jareth wasn’t being fair.

I realize now that he was initially well meaninged and meant to teach me a lesson. But from our first conversation to the next, he seemed very agitated. I had gotten out of the oubliette, and I remember quite distinctly he seemed to lose his temper with me when I directly challenged him. Later, I’d understand that he was helping me little by little through the labyrinth itself and my insinuation of it being a “piece of cake” made me look quite spoiled and full of myself.

To me, not knowing he was helping in the background, I had thought he was fighting against me, not trying to teach me a valuable lesson or a bunch of lessons.

Even the Goblins, and all the subjects of the Goblin Kingdom seemed more friendly than I’d have thought Goblins to be. With exception of how they treated Ludo.

I must have really angered Jareth, though, because at some point he had given Hoggle an enchanted peach. It would have trapped me in my dreams. An endless masquerade party.

Jareth had insisted this was when he realized he fell in love with me. I wonder what actually made him think of it. And I wonder what really made that look of pain on his face appear. The thought of completely losing me?

His pleas for companionship fell on misunderstanding ears, and I regret it. When I got home, things were terrible and they stayed that way. Every day felt like a brand new hell the older I got. I should have left home when I was eighteen, but it felt like no matter what I’d try to do, I’d be met with bad luck.

Now here I am.

Among a sea of arguing Faeries, and feeling ridiculous, shameful, and exposed. Jareth seemed to ignore me, even when it was my time to speak, and I realized in that moment that his approval had become as important to me as my Mom’s had been. Had he abandoned me, too?

Jareth was on trial for breaking off the engagement with Maeve because it offended her. Fae were petty creatures, so this seemed rather unimportant to me, but I knew to them this must have been very dramatic. I tried to understand, and I’m sure it went a little deeper than that, but it was hard for me to follow.

I found myself staring at Maeve and wondering why Jareth didn’t want to proceed with his engagement to her. She was gorgeous. I guessed she was a wood nymph of some kind, with bronzed skin and brilliant red hair and strikingly yellow eyes. She was queen of the autumn court, and really looked intimidating.

I could never compare to her, I thought miserably.

It wasn’t until Maeve grabbed my arm and threw me to the ground that I really snapped out of my own head.

“You’d leave me?! For this disgusting Earth-born?!” she roared. The wind had been knocked out of me a second and I gulped for air, but none would fill my lungs. “She’s pathetic!”

I had just caught my breath finally when a blow to my stomach knocked it right back out. I must have blacked out a moment because the next thing I know I was being yanked by my arm again and thrown into Jareth. He caught me stiffly. His face bore no reaction but his grip was tight and he was shaking.

He still avoided eye contact with me. 

“-no reason we should have an earth-born queen. It goes against our purity we pride ourself in.”

“But there’s no reason against it, either. She’s clearly one of us now Ariel. Don’t you know that some of yours used to be earth-born?”

“Are you referring to Lysander and Hermia?”

“Don't forget Demetrius and Helena, too.”

“I had forgotten, they seem so much like us now.”

“Exactly.”

“If you are done discussing, it’s time to share your votes,” King Madoc boomed.

Titania returned to her throne as I tried to stand on my own. I was too wobbly and fell back over. Jareth, who had been avoiding eye contact with me the entire time, was now finally acknowledging me with a look of tortured concern on his face. When our eyes locked, he immediately seemed to flatten his expression and cast his gaze to the floor again.

Why won’t you look at me?

The tally of votes, for whatever they voted for, were mixed. I assumed Maeve’s vote of “nay” was the bad vote, but hadn’t kept track of either enough to really know what to expect.

Ariel, Puck, and Mab all had plenty of passing votes. Maeve’s personal vendetta against Jareth and I seemed to only be just that. A personal vendetta. I was grateful that’s all it was seen as. I barely understood the proceedings but it seemed all rather chaotic.

“Passed, then,” King Madoc said finally, nodding. “Jareth, you are reinstated as King of the Labyrinth and of the Goblins, and your powers are hereby restored. Sarah will proceed to be crowned queen. Dismissed.”

Everything happened at once.

As soon as Madoc dismissed the court, Jareth sprung into action, throwing his hand up violently towards Maeve. Maeve, mid jump as if she had anticipated Jareth’s anger, was hit by an invisible force, was sent hurtling to the wall and slammed into it, cracking it loudly. Dust billowed from where she landed, obscuring her from view.

Fae who were a little slower to react then finally jumped back and away.

“I’d thank you to not destroy my Castle, Jareth,” Madoc said calmly. “There is plenty of room outside, if you wish to continue this.”

“Gladly,” Jareth snarled, a twisted, evil grin I had personally never seen before on his face.

A flash of red from the corner of my eye happened the moment my attention was on Jareth and suddenly I was on the ground, pain blossoming spots in my eyes.

“I curse you,” Maeve whispered hatefully in my ear. “Love him all you like but you will never bear any children. Never in your mortal life, never in your immortal life. I curse you with indefinite infertility.”

The weight of her disappeared instantly and darkness shadowed the corners of my vision. I was vaguely aware of a wet, dripping feeling in my lower back, but it was not cold. Just constant and irritating. I reached back, but my hand was restrained immediately.

“Sleep now, Sarah,” murmured Titania’s soft voice soothingly in my ear.

How could I say “ _no_?” I got dizzy a second, my hearing dulling to nothing before unconsciousness overtook me.


	9. Frustration Builds

* * *

**Frustration Builds**

* * *

When I woke up, I was in familiar territory.

Brilliant sunlight streamed gently into the ornately decorated room of the Goblin King, The bed itself seemed like an unnecessary feature for a creature that didn’t even need to sleep, but perhaps even Fae liked to lounge sometimes. Or it was simply a statement of power. It was as if it were built into the brick wall itself, steps above it and below it. The room itself was, like everything else in the castle, a rather interesting design to say the least bit. The steps were used as shelving for various magical artifacts, candles, and of course the crystal balls. The window was a few meters thick and glassless, perfect for sitting and watching the goblins bustling beneath in the city or watching a young girl lost in the labyrinth trying to win back her baby half-brother.

I wasn’t yet so accustomed to starting the day in this room to falsely believe things were normal at the moment, but part of me wanted to continue to be ignorant to the damage that had been done to me. I spent more time than I ever did until I was bored before I finally sat up.

I placed a hand to my back and frowned.

I had expected pain and received nothing. Not even an uncomfortable twinge. It was as if nothing had happened at all to me and I distinctly remember the trial very vividly.

I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice the goblins who had entered the room until I heard them drop the tray of rags and water that they carried.

“She’s awake! She’s awake!” the littlest of the two goblins said, smacking the larger one upside the head. “Don’ jus’ stand there! We need to tell his Royalness! He’d wanna know straight away!”

I stared after them, dumbfounded, as they scurried off, leaving the rags and water on the floor. Sighing a little bit and shaking my head at them, I got up and started to clean it up. The rags looked fresh if not a little bit overused, the water was steamy. I wondered what it was supposed to be for. I looked over at the bed and realized there was a rag on the bed, and discovered upon picking it up that it was cold, but damp. Had I been running a fever?

By now the goblins would have gotten to the throne room, where Jareth was most likely to be, and by now he would know I was awake. What should I expect him to do when he finds out? Teleport right up to me and worry? Run for me? Ignore the news as if it were nothing to him? I really couldn’t imagine what was going to happen. Not after he refused to look me in the eye. Had I upset him? Maybe he was going to send me home after all this.

“You needn’t clean after the goblins,” he scolded me softly. “They are the ones who should be cleaning it up.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t apologize, you were being kind. There is nothing wrong with that.”

I shook my head, refusing to turn and face him.

“I’m sorry for what happened at the trial…”

Jareth made a noise I didn’t understand. I turned and looked at him in confusion. He was wearing a white loose-fitting blouse that was open in the front as he normally did. He had his arms crossed as he stared at me with an indeterminable expression.

“You’re still angry with me, aren’t you?” I asked him. 

“Sarah, what did I tell you?” he demanded impatiently, frowning at me. When I didn’t answer, he did for me. “You will know when I’m angry with you.”

“So you aren’t, then?”

“No…” He considered me a moment, looking down at my waist. “You need quite a lot of reassurance over such trivial things.”

I frowned at him, confused. He pushed off the wall easily and walked over towards me, brushing his gloved fingers across my forehead and tucked my bangs behind my ears.

“Forgive me for this,” he said gently before he took his gloves off. He stepped closer to me, and immediately, instinctively, my hands went up against his chest for both balance and surprise. Slowly, he clutched my waist and pulled my shirt up very slightly. A noise came out of my mouth that might have been shock, or perhaps discomfort, as he felt around the small of my back for a moment. Then he leaned back and pulled my shirt back down, seeming relieved. “They healed at least.”

“What happened?” I asked, alarmed, pulling my shirt back up so I could feel the area myself. It just felt like my back. Jareth looked over to the window, seemingly ignoring my curiosity. I pressed further. “Jareth… What. Happened?”

My tone seemed to annoy him, and he glared at me for a moment, snapping his eyes to stare at me intensely. I stared back at him, hoping that would indicate to him that I wasn’t going to let it go.

“Maeve…” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “... Completely destroyed your ovaries.”

“With a curse? Curses can be reversed.”

He shook his head.

“She has the ability to produce rosebush vines which she stabbed completely through you and physically destroyed them and cursed them that way. It’s not reversible, I’m afraid” He scowled. “Had I not retaliated against her, she would not have done this to you.”

“Jareth, this castle is teaming with wayward children,” I said darkly. “Surely you, who is constantly surrounded by children every day, are not despairing over my inability to produce an heir, are you?”

He seemed a little confused.

“I-no, no, no. Of course not.” He picked up my hands from his chest and clutched them together, close to his heart. “I am not in the least bit bothered by that. More so, I am concerned with how much it bothers you.”

“I… Honestly don’t think I care as much as Maeve thought I would,” I said calmly. “What happened to her?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, after she did the curse on me. I lost consciousness after Titania-.”

“Sarah…” Jareth cut me off with a warning look. “You need to get into the habit of using ‘Lady’ and ‘Lord’ when addressing anyone of a higher status than you. I’ve let you get away with being informal with me-.”

My cheeks burned with embarrassment and I yanked my hands out of his. He stared at me in bewilderment at first but then it slid steadily into a glare as he angled his head downward slightly.

“You are not going to ask me to start calling you ‘Lord Jareth,’ are you?” I snapped.

That spark of electricity shot through me as he suddenly grasped my chin firmly as he stepped so close that barely an inch of air was between us, his gaze burning into mine with an intensity that I was not used to.

“You would refer to me as ‘Lord Jareth’ and address me as ‘your highness,’ or other similar titles if I demanded it of you and you would do as I say,” he said in a very low, dangerous voice. “Know your place.”

I nearly bit my retort back before it bubbled out of my lips, but something about this exchange was exciting to me. I pressed onward against my own better judgement.

“And if I don’t?” I said testily.

“Why are you testing my patience?”

I felt my temper snap almost physically.

“Why are you suddenly acting like I’m beneath you?” I snarled up at him, yanking my chin out of his fingers. “I thought I was supposed to be your queen, and yet you are treating me like I’m a servant. I am your eq-.”

The scenery changed instantly, and we were both suddenly outside of the labyrinth, on the familiar hill that overlooked the entire kingdom. The unexpected change made me unbalanced, and I nearly fell backwards, but Jareth caught me easily.

“I wouldn’t finish that sentence if I were you, Sarah.” His tone was different. Quiet and dangerously soft. I’d crossed a line somewhere. “And before you ask why, consider possible consequences to your next words. I will not grant you such patience again, so I suggest you choose your next sentence with the utmost care and consideration.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but I froze. His eyebrows rose higher as he regarded me coldly. I did not like that look at all. I felt angry tears stinging my eyes but I considered what I was going to say very, very carefully.

“I am upset,” I started scathingly. “I had only just started to learn the ins-and-outs of this realm. And you left me. Alone. Madoc-  _ King  _ Madoc,” I interjected before Jareth cut me off. “... He came. He embarrassed the hell out of me, and when I was brought to the trial  _ you refused to look at me _ . Were you mad at me? Had I embarrassed you? I didn’t even know what was going on around me but I was so focused on you. And then she... “

I fell silent for a moment. Jareth’s face had gone from stoney to one of quiet understanding.

“She’s an ex-girlfriend. I got jealous. And I needed reassurance but ever since that moment it just feels like you went from wanting me around to suddenly not wanting anything to do with me.”

That made him look at me in a very confused way.

“Jareth,” I asked softly, dropping my gaze to his pendant he always wore on his chest. “Do you really still want me to be your queen?”

“Yes, of course.” I opened my mouth to respond, looking back up at him, but he placed a finger against my lips. “ _ Shhhh _ , precious. It’s my turn to speak.”

He stepped closer, intimately so, his bare hands on my cheeks suddenly as he angled our faces inches apart. I was still rather upset, but something was calming in his eyes and his tone.

“I don’t know what courtship consists of in the human world, nor am I really interested to know. I already explained to you that my engagement to Maeve was arranged, and that she was not friendly to my subjects. During the trial, I kept my head down. As you are my chosen queen, any hurt done onto you is one upon myself as well. For Fae, there isn’t any courtship. There is no need for it.”

“Jareth…?” I asked quietly, after a rather long moment of him staring directly into my eyes. He made a quiet noise of acknowledgement. “Why are we out here?”

“Well,” he said, jerking his head a bit to the side as he rolled his eyes. As if it were painfully obvious? “This is a matter between you and I, and privacy is not exactly possible in that castle.”

I couldn’t exactly place it, but there seemed to be another reason. I felt it better to not push it.

“So, the trial,” he said gently, redirecting the conversation. “I am curious how it looked through your eyes.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused. “Wouldn’t it be the same as what you saw?”

“No,” he said, smirking. “Here.”

He placed his forehead against mine, and the moment he did so, the scene changed. Jareth was no longer standing in front of me. I was back at the trial, except it looked completely different.

The room was the same, Madoc’s gothic-styled dark looming columns rising to an impossibly high ceiling I’d never even attempted to take in. Why hadn’t I even looked at them? There was colors more vibrant than I’d seen them. But what was different was the Fae in the room. When I had seen mostly people, nearly all perfectly humanoid, through Jareth’s eyes I saw what they really were.

Puck was a satyr. Somehow this made sense and even appeared to be how I saw him. Maybe I saw him for what he was with little cloven hooves and curling asymmetrical goat horns. A pan flute lay at his side, attached around his shoulder. His group of spring-fae all seemed to be wearing flowers of all different beautiful colors. Nymphs, naked and bare to the world, a sylph, another satyr, a mermaid, and what appeared to be a humanoidly-shaped bush. A spriggan, perhaps? Jareth’s mind seemed to confirm this thought.

Ariel was the most confusing. I couldn’t tell if they were male or female anymore. I certainly thought Ariel was male before, but now I wasn’t sure. There were no breasts, but the torso part of the centaur seemed rather femininly built otherwise. The summer fae consisted of a silkie, a few dwarves, a few elves and a halfling.

Maeve had the most change in her appearance. When I saw a beautiful red headed beauty, Jareth saw an ugly hag. The long-limbed, sharp-toothed hag still possessed long red curly hair, but her bronzed skin was more of a dead-leaf color. Bones decorated her person as well as dead or dying plant matter. I wondered for a moment if Jareth was vain in actuality and if he only really liked me because his only other choice was the hag. Jareth’s mind was silent against that thought and I thought he ignored it. The Autumn court fae had a few boggarts, red caps, harpies, and a creature made entirely of fungi that I couldn’t name.

Mab was the most like the form that I saw her in, though I don’t know if I ever truly looked at them at all. Mab was a banshee. Her eyes covered, and her head bowed. The winter fae consisted of a cat sith, a vampire, a few drow, a lamia, two minotaur, and a dullahan.

Before I could look at Titania, Oberon and Madoc, however, the scene changed and Jareth was now standing in front of me again, his forehead disconnected from mine, his eyes cast elsewhere, not really looking at anything it seemed like.

“That would be rude,” he said softly in explanation before I even asked. “Interesting that even though the fae magic should have instilled itself into you by now that you are unable to see past glamor.”

I frowned. It did not sound like a compliment, and I found his tone to be very concerning. He seemed a little worried about it, too, though I didn’t quite understand why.

A pixie caught my attention as it landed on the branch of the tree nearby. I squinted at it vaguely and wondered if perhaps I would turn into something small and useless. But as I watched, I saw the branches growing with life. So something small and mean like pixies had magic, too.

Was I even a fae yet?


End file.
